Ellen DeGeneres Disappoints Vegan Fans Yet Again

With celebrities, it is always wise to take statements about them becoming vegans with a grain of salt. Countless times a star’s announcement has gotten their fanbase excited, only for them to then be disappointed when the celebrity in question buys leather, wears fur, or supports a company that tests on animals.

We like to think people make mistakes and may not know the horrifying extent to which animals are mistreated, abused, and killed in various circumstances, which of course can be the case. With celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres, however, it becomes increasingly hard to believe either of those options.

DeGeneres publicly announced that she became a vegan, along with her wife, for ethical reasons and even has a section on The Ellen DeGeneres Show website dedicated to “Going Vegan With Ellen”, where she promotes Meatless Mondays. However the talk show host quickly came under fire from her vegan fanbase for not only working with cosmetic company CoverGirl, which tests on animals, but also for creating her ED shoe line, which includes genuine leather and genuine suede.

After Finding Dory–the sequel to Finding Nemo–was confirmed to have both environmental and animal rights themes, DeGeneres is facing backlash again after a recent press conference in London on Monday, where she was promoting the film. According to the New Zealand Herald, the comedian joked about how she began eating fish again as revenge for the offer of a sequel taking so long to be made, and then added a few more surprising lines. She stated:

“When we did Finding Nemo I was eating fish, and then I became a vegan for most of those years. And then I just started recently eating fish, [which was] retaliation for no sequel. I don’t eat blue tang, and I rarely eat fish. I don’t eat meat or anything, but I don’t really enjoy eating fish.”

Blue tang is the type of fish that Dory is meant to represent in the movies. While Ellen’s new eating habits make more sense considering her entrepreneurial ventures, not enjoying consuming fish is an issue that can easily be solved.

Although I DO agree that the leather shoes are very suspicious for a vegan. I just checked her website and they are definitely still there. Doesn’t Natalie Portman have a vegan shoe line that she created specifically b/c she found it so hard to find vegan friendly shoes? Too bad Ellen didn’t do the same.

Who knows really if we are vegan. People can lie. Especially celebrities looking for a fan boost.
Unfortunately this happens. But if anyone wants to be vegan, as I am for 5 years now, they should just invest some time in researching what it means. It is not about watching a cartoon and emotionally feel a connection to animal atrocities. This just doesn’t give the full impact of how horrific it is to be an animal. And if anyone one thinks it doesn’t matter, it’s because they have never personally experienced an animals life in captivity (slavery), torture and death in a slaughterhouse. Certainly not ot any moral ethical person. They just buy their dead animal body parts all wrapped up nice and tidy, unlike the blood, fecal matter and urine you find on a slaughterhouse floor as a helpless animal hangs by one leg as a human slicrs the animals throat. This is why the turn over rate is so high at a slaughterhouse. Who couldn’t understand this. Even with a vast majority of the workers being ex-convicts convicted of only the most horrific crimes, foreigners (you know those people that come to the US illegally) that take all the good high paying jobs that should be going to good Christian families. A slaughterhouse is one of those jobs that the media won’t talk about. Not even that it is one of the most dangerous, disgusting mind blowing jobs available. I don’t put any faith in star value. They aren’t the ones having their live snuffed out mercilessly. People are lied to about an animal life. And making films about cute little fish, pigs, birds, mice (leading kids into a magical kingdom) is an unethical and moral cognitive disconnect of the greatest proportion.

Yeah I don’t understand why you needed to add the racist, bigoted undertones. “should be going to good christian families”… really? Are you implying that anyone who doesn’t follow your religion is not a good person? You shouldn’t be compassionate only when it suits you. You’re a hypocrite if you’re a vegan but racist.

So…the fish have done what to her exactly? If she’s looking for retaliation, it’s against the damn movie company not the fish. If it’s a joke it’s in very poor taste and you’d think there’d be a statement saying so. Any half decent human doesn’t retaliate against the innocent, vegan or not. People need to quit putting so much stock in psuedo-vegan celebs. 99% are in it for publicity and $$

We as a community need to be more excited when we find new allies, especially ones that are in the public eye. Better for her to do something for this cause than nothing. She shouldn’t be crucified for not being perfect. Instead, encouraged to keep going and celebrated for her efforts 🙂